EDI and ERP: a real-time framework for healthcare data exchange.

A framework is presented for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) in the healthcare industry. As the total cost of healthcare continues to rise and competitive pressures increase, the ability to reduce expenses while at the same time improving overall business characteristics, create an opportunity and necessity for technology usage. The framework addresses current barriers of EDI setup such as cost and flexibility along with ERP communication between entities. A prototype system is created to show feasibility of recent technology improvements and generate a proof of concept for the real-time framework.